The Life
and Campaigns of Major-General J.E.B. Stuart By
H.B. McClellan

Chapter I.--Ancestry,
Boyhood And Youth.

JAMES
EWELL BROWN STUART was born in Patrick County, Virginia, on
the 6th of February, 1833.
His ancestry is
traced on his father's side to Archibald Stuart, a native of
Londonderry, Ireland, but of Scotch-Presbyterian parentage,
who, about the year 1726, was compelled by religious
persecution to fly from his native country. He found refuge
in western Pennsylvania, where he remained in seclusion for
seven years. At the expiration of this period the passage of
an act of amnesty rendered it safe for him to disclose his
hiding-place, and his wife and children joined him in his new
home. About the year 1738 he removed from Pennsylvania to
Augusta County, Va., where he acquired large landed estates,
which, either during his lifetime or by will, he divided
among his four children.
His second son and
third child, Major Alexander Stuart, was early in the
Revolutionary War commissioned as major in Colonel Samuel
McDowell's regiment, in which he served throughout the war.
During Colonel McDowell's illness he commanded the regiment
at the battle of Guilford Court House. Two horses were killed
under him in this action, and he himself, dangerously
wounded, was left upon the field and fell into the hands of
the enemy. He was subsequently exchanged, and his sword was
returned to him. This valued relic is now in the possession
of his grandson, the Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, of
Virginia. Major Stuart was a warm friend of education, and
aided liberally in the endowment of the school which
afterwards expanded into Washington College, and is now known
as Washington and Lee University. He was a man of large
stature and uncommon intelligence. He died at the advanced
age of ninety years.
Judge Alexander
Stuart, the youngest son of Major Alexander Stuart, was a
lawyer by profession. He resided for some years in Cumberland
County, Va., but having been elected a member of the
Executive Council of the State, removed thence to Richmond.
He subsequently resided in Illinois, where he held the office
of United States Judge; and in Missouri, where he held office
as United States Judge, Judge of the Circuit Court of the
State, and Speaker of the Missouri Legislature. He died in
Staunton, Va., in 1832, and was there buried.
The Hon. Archibald
Stuart, of Patrick County, Va., the eldest son of Judge
Alexander Stuart and the father of General J. E. B. Stuart,
was an officer in the United States Army in the War of 1812.
He embraced the profession of law. Throughout his long and
eventful life he was actively engaged in the practice of his
profession and in political life. He represented, first, the
county of Campbell in the Virginia Legislature, and was
repeatedly elected to both branches of that body from the
county of Patrick. He was a member of the Constitutional
Convention of 1829-30, and of the Convention of 1850. In this
latter body, he and the Hon. Henry A. Wise were two of the
four members residing east of the Blue Ridge who advocated a
"white basis" of representation for the State. He
represented the Patrick district in the Federal Congress
during the Nullification agitation, and was a strong
supporter of Mr. Calhoun in that crisis. He is represented as
a man of splendid talents and wonderful versatility. "A
powerful orator and advocate, he charmed the multitude on the
hustings, and convinced juries and courts. In addition to
these gifts, he was one of the most charming social
companions the State ever produced. Possessing wonderful wit
and humor, combined with rare gift for song, he at once
became the centre of attraction at every social gathering.
Among the people of the counties where he practised his name
is held in great respect, and his memory is cherished with an
affection rarely equalled in the history of any public
man."
He married
Elizabeth Letcher Pannill, of Pittsylvania County, Va., by
whom he had four sons and six daughters. Among these, James
E. B. Stuart was the seventh child and youngest son.
On his mother's
side the ancestry of General Stuart is not less
distinguished.
Giles Letcher was
descended from ancient Welsh families-- the Hughses, Gileses,
and Leches. He was born in Ireland, to which country one of
his ancestors had removed from Wales during the reign of
Charles the Second. He emigrated to the New World before the
Revolutionary War, and was married in Richmond, Va., to Miss
Hannah Hughes, a lady of fortune and o[ Welsh extraction. He
settled in Goochland County, Va. He had four sons and one
daughter. His eldest son, Stephen Letcher, was the father of
Governor Robert P. Letcher, of Kentucky. His third son, John
Letcher, married the daughter of the Hon. Sam Houston, of
Texas, and was the father of Governor John Letcher, of
Virginia. His second son, William Letcher, removed to
Pittsylvania County, Va., where he married Elizabeth Perkins,
daughter of Nicholas Perkins, who owned a considerable estate
upon the Dan River. He finally settled in Patrick County, on
the Ararat, a small stream which rises in the Blue Ridge and
empties into the Yadkin River in North Carolina.
The settlers in
that part of Virginia were greatly annoyed by the Tories, who
were numerous in North Carolina, and many encounters had
taken place between them and the Whigs in that border land.
William Letcher had served in a volunteer company from his
county that had defeated the Tories at the battle of the
Shallow Ford, on the Yadkin, a place which is still
considered historic in that locality. This victory had
inspired the Whigs with new courage; and William Letcher,
prominent among them, had openly expressed his determination
to resist the robberies and depredations of the Tories, and
to hunt them down to the death. In the latter part of June,
1780, while Mrs. Letcher was in her house alone with her
infant daughter, then only six weeks old, a stranger appeared
at the door and inquired for Mr. Letcher. There was nothing
unusual in his manner, and Mrs. Letcher replied that her
husband would soon be at home. While she was speaking, Mr.
Letcher entered and invited the stranger to be seated. To
this courtesy the stranger (he was a Tory named Nichols)
replied by presenting his gun and saying: "I demand you
in his Majesty's name." Letcher seized the gun to get
possession of it; the Tory fired, and Letcher fell mortally
wounded. He survived a few moments, but never spoke. Nichols
fled. The terror-stricken wife despatched messengers to her
relatives on the Dan River, who came to her as soon as
possible, and attended to the burial of her husband. Nichols
committed other murders and many robberies, but was finally
overtaken in the southern part of North Carolina, and
expiated his crimes on the gallows.
William Letcher was
a man of fine appearance, and was greatly beloved and
esteemed. His widow returned to her paternal home, with her
little daughter Bethenia, and there remained until her second
marriage with Colonel George Hairston, of Henry County, Va.
In after years Bethenia Letcher married David Pannill, of
Pittsylvania County, Va. Her daughter, Elizabeth Letcher
Pannill, married Archibald Stuart.
She inherited from
her grandfather, William Letcher, a beautiful and fertile
farm in the southwestern part of Patrick County, which was
named "Laurel Hill." Here her children were born.
The large and comfortable house was surrounded by native oaks
and was beautified with a flower garden, which was one of the
childish delights of her son James, to whom she had
transmitted her own passionate love of flowers. The site
commanded a fine view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and near
at hand was the monument erected to the memory of William
Letcher by his daughter Bethenia.
Amid these
surroundings James Stuart passed a happy boyhood. He loved
the old homestead with all the enthusiasm of his nature; and
one of the fondest dreams of his manhood was that he might
own the place of his birth, and there end his days in quiet
retirement. He writes thus to his mother from Fort
Leavenworth, in 1857:--

I wish to devote one hundred dollars to
the purchase of a comfortable log church near your place,
because in all my observation I believe one is more
needed in that neighborhood than any other that I know
of; and besides, "charity begins at home."
Seventy-five of this one hundred dollars I have in trust
for that purpose, and the remainder is my own
contribution. If you will join me with twenty-five
dollars, a contribution of a like amount from two or
three others interested will build a very respectable
free church. What will you take for the south half of
your plantation ? I want to buy it.

A near
relative writes: --

I well remember his speaking thus to his
brother in 1863: "I would give anything to make a
pilgrimage to the old place, and when the war is over
quietly to spend the rest of my days there."

At the
age of fourteen years James Stuart was placed at school in
Wytheville; and in August, 1848, he entered Emory and Henry
College. During a revival of religion among the students he
professed conversion, and joined the Methodist Church.
Throughout his after life he maintained a consistent
Christian character. Ten years later, in 1859, he was
confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop
Hawkes, in St. Louis. The reasons for this change in his
church connections were simple and natural. His mother was an
Episcopalian, and had early instilled into him a love for her
own church. His wife was a member of the same communion. He
found, also, that a majority of the chaplains in the United
States Army at that time were Episcopalian divines, and he
considered that his opportunities for Christian fellowship
and church privileges would be increased by the change. His
spirit toward all denominations of Christians was as far
removed as possible from narrow sectarianism.
In April, 1850,
James Stuart left Emory and Henry College, having obtained an
appointment as cadet in the United States Military Academy at
West Point, on the recommendation of the Hon. T. H. Averett,
of the Third District of Virginia. During his career as
cadet, Stuart applied himself assiduously to study, and
graduated thirteenth in a class of forty-six members. He
appears to have been more ambitious of soldierly than of
scholarly distinction, and held in succession the cadet
offices of corporal, sergeant, orderly sergeant, captain of
the second company, and cavalry sergeant; the last being the
highest office in that arm of the service at the Academy.
General Fitzhugh Lee speaks thus of this period:--

I
recall his distinguishing characteristics, which were a
strict attention to his military duties, an erect,
soldierly bearing, an immediate and almost thankful
acceptance of a challenge to fight from any cadet who
might in any way feel himself aggrieved, and a clear,
metallic, ringing voice.

The
reader must not suppose from this description that Stuart was
an advocate of the duel. The difficulties referred to were of
such a character as are always liable to occur between boys
at school, especially where, under a military organization,
boys bear authority over boys. Another fellow-cadet gives the
testimony that Stuart was known as a "Bible-class
man," but was always ready to defend his own rights or
his honor; and that the singular feature of his encounters
with his fellow-students was, that his antagonists were
physically far superior to him, and that although generally
worsted in the encounter, Stuart always gained ground in the
estimation of his fellows by his manly pluck and endurance.
What his conduct was under these circumstances may be
inferred from the following extracts from letters written by
his father, who was a man of prudence and of honor. Under
date of June 15, 1853, Archibald Stuart thus writes to his
son:--

I am proud to say that your conduct has
given me entire satisfaction. I heard, it is true (but no
thanks to you for the information), of the little scrape
in which you involved yourself; but I confess, from what
I understand of the transaction, I did not consider you
so much to blame. An insult should be resented under all
circumstances. If a man in your circumstances gains
credit by submitting to insult as a strict observer of
discipline, he loses more in proportion in his standing
as a gentleman and a man of courage.

Again on
January 5, 1854, he writes :--

I
have received your letter, and much regret that you have
been involved in another fighting scrape. My dear son, I
can excuse more readily a fault of the sort you have
committed, in which you maintained your character as a
man of honor and courage, than almost any other. But I
hope you will hereafter, as far as possible, avoid
getting into difficulties in which such maintenance may
be demanded at your hands.

The
relations existing between the father and son, as revealed by
their correspondence during Stuart's cadet-ship, were of the
most admirable character. Mutual affection was founded on
mutual respect. As the time of graduation approached, the
minds of both were greatly exercised over the important
question of a choice of profession; and while the father
seems to have preferred that his son should adopt the
profession of arms, he throws the responsibility of the
decision on his son, as the one most interested in, and the
one most capable of making, a wise decision. The religious
element in Stuart's character seems to have had a decided
influence at this crisis of his life, and he was doubtless
led to his decision by that Providence in which he trusted,
and which was even then preparing him for his after life.
During his last year at West Point he writes thus to his
father:--

I
have not as yet any fixed course determined upon after
graduation; still I can't help but regard it as the
important crisis of my life. Two courses will be left for
my adoption, the profession of arms and that of law; the
one securing an ample support, with a life of hardship
and uncertainty,--laurels, if any, dearly bought, and
leaving an empty title as a bequeathment; the other an
overcrowded thoroughfare, which may or may not yield a
support, -- may possibly secure honors, but of doubtful
worth. Each has its labors and its rewards. In making the
selection I will rely upon the guidance of Him whose
judgment cannot err, for "it is not with man that
walk-eth to direct his steps."

After
Stuart had fairly embarked on his military career his father
writes thus:--

Before
I conclude I must express the deep solicitude I feel on
your account. Just embarking in military life (a life
which tests, perhaps more than any other, a young man's
prudence and steadiness), at an immense distance from
your friends, great responsibility rests upon your
shoulders. It is true that you have, to start with, good
morals fortified by religion, a good temper, and a good
constitution, which if preserved will carry you through
the trial safely. But the temptations of a camp to a
young man of sanguine temperament, like yourself, are not
to be trifled with or despised. I conjure you to be
constantly on your guard, repelling and avoiding the
slightest approach towards vice or immorality. You have
to go through a fiery ordeal, but it is one through which
many great and pious men have gone unscathed. But the
greater portion have not escaped unscorched, and many
have perished. Your military training at West Point will
strengthen you greatly in the struggle. By it you have
been taught the necessity of strict subordination to
superiors, and of kind and conciliatory manners toward
equals; and I trust that you will carry those lessons
into practice now that you have exchanged the Academy for
the camp.

Words of
wisdom are these; words which the young man laid close to his
heart. No stain of vice or immorality was ever found upon
him.